How to retrieve the date of the first timeline entry for a page in AEM code base and display it with other details when author selects the page ?

[Nilesh_Mali]

Retrieve the date of the first timeline entry for a page in AEM code base and display it with other details when author selects the page. 

Or store first timeline entry date inside jcr:content with other page details

[Tethich]

Hi @Nilesh_Mali 

I believe you can look how this is handling it:

/libs/cq/gui/components/coral/common/admin/timeline/events/version

You can start from the version.jsp.

[AmitVishwakarma]

1. Retrieve the First Timeline Entry Date: Query the page’s version history (jcr:versionHistory) and get the creation date of the first version.

2. Store the Date in jcr:content: Save the date as a property (firstTimelineEntryDate) in the page's jcr:content node for easy access.

3. Display in Dialog: Create a custom dialog to show the firstTimelineEntryDate property using a read-only field in AEM authoring interface.

This way, the first timeline entry date is easily accessible and stored with other page details.

[kautuk_sahni]

@Nilesh_Mali Did you find the suggestions helpful? Please let us know if you require more information. Otherwise, please mark the answer as correct for posterity. If you've discovered a solution yourself, we would appreciate it if you could share it with the community. Thank you!

[Nilesh_Mali · Accepted solution]

@kautuk_sahni  Discovered a solution

Accessing Timeline Data via PageManager API
AEM stores page modification history in the **PageManager** API. By leveraging this API, we can retrieve the first recorded modification date of a page.

Implementation

1. Backend: Servlet to Fetch Timeline Entries
A servlet was created to iterate through timeline entries and retrieve the earliest available creation date.

JSONArray timelineEntries = new JSONArray();
Iterator<Resource> timelineIterator = page.getContentResource().listChildren();
while (timelineIterator.hasNext()) {
Resource timelineResource = timelineIterator.next();
String created = timelineResource.getValueMap().get("jcr:created", String.class);

if (created != null) {
JSONObject entry = new JSONObject();
entry.put("created", created);
timelineEntries.put(entry);
break; // Fetch only the first entry
}
}

2. Frontend: Displaying Timeline Data
A simple JavaScript snippet was implemented to fetch and display the first timeline entry on the frontend.

$(document).ready(function () {
const pagePath = window.location.pathname;
$.ajax({
url: "/bin/timeline",
type: "GET",
data: { path: pagePath },
success: function (data) {
if (data.timeline.length > 0) {
alert("Page First Created Date: " + data.timeline[0].created);
} else {
alert("No timeline entries found.");
}
},
error: function () {
alert("Failed to retrieve timeline data.");
}
});
});

This solution efficiently extracts and presents the first recorded creation date of an AEM page.